Baal HaSulam, “Matan Torah (The Giving of the Torah)” (an abbreviated version): The rich man who wants to give everything to his poor friend can’t correct his friend’s shame. The poor man himself, through his efforts, corrects the shame and becomes like his rich friend.

To become similar, they need to cover the abyss that separates them. And if one of them is perfect, the rift needs to be corrected by the other. Without the poor man having to do it by himself, he won’t feel that he gained anything.

This is why the shame is indispensable, and it has to be as great as the gap between the created being and the Creator. We need to correct the shame in its entirety. Thereby the created being becomes similar to the Creator, that is, adheres to Him, and then both of them turn into one.

The poor man receives everything only for the sake of his rich friend since it is only in this way that he can bring him pleasure. Otherwise the rich man will grieve and suffer. This is called, “the sorrow of the Shechina (Divinity).” The Creator feels our sorrows much more than we do since each of us is disconnected from the others. Whereas in the world of Infinity, it’s possible to feel how everyone spoils the unity, and this brings great sorrow to the Shechina.

Thus, if a person feels, at least slightly, the sorrow of the Shechina, he begins to understand that he suffers because of it. And then he sees that it is possible to use the love of Shechina in order to act. Like the poor person, he can use the relation of the rich person correctly, use his love. After all, the suffering of the rich man is great indeed.

Baal HaSulam writes about this in the first article of Shamati, “There is None Else Besides Him“: “And certainly, the sensation of a single organ cannot resemble the sensation of a person’s full stature, where most of the pain is felt. Likewise, is the pain that a person feels when he is remote from the Creator. Since man is but a single organ of the Holy Shechina, for the Holy Shechina is the common soul of Israel, hence, the sensation of a single organ does not resemble the sensation of the pain in general.”

Man uses the Creator’s love and the sorrow for him in the correct way. He receives everything from the Creator and thus bestows to the Creator and fills Him with pleasure. And then the person discovers the same love towards the Creator that the Creator has for him. This is the purpose of creation—love for the Creator, and thanks to it, we reach equivalence of form, like the rich man and the poor one.
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From the 4th part of the Daily Kabbalah Lesson 11/6/2011, “Matan Torah (The Givien of the Torah)”

Related Material:
Shame As The Means Of Correction
Grieving For The Shechina In Exile
Shame Is The Opposite Of Perfection

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